Americans are especially good at mangling French place names, St. Louis being an especially good example. The local pronunciation of Des Plaines, the city or th

Americans are especially good at mangling French place names, St. Louis being an especially good example. The local pronunciation of Des Plaines, the city or the river, is "Dess Planes," and on and on. Sometimes we get it right, as with Prairie du Chien in Wisconsin, but usually there are one or more Anglicizations in French place names in the US. It can sometimes happen with Spanish as well, for instance, San Jose, IL is pronounced "San Joes."